Governor House, Jack Lily City, Serninon
Governor Tariel Scrooge, who looked to be a man in his late forties, was still awake, not only awake but also in a meeting. He was currently in a room with the Captain of Public Security, Head of House Security, Guild Masters of Mercenary and Information Guild as well as his Daughter.
Everyone in this room could be considered to be top power in this city, especially the governor himself. After all, he was not only a powerful Warrior but also a Master Contractor. His spirit beast, the Flaming Head Turtle, was already powerful enough; he only needed to become more powerful before he could be considered one of the top forces in the Nation.
The reason for everyone's presence went back a few months back. Around 3 months ago a serial killer had emerged in their city. It only killed those who showed obvious signs of depression or had publicly stated that they would kill themselves. Which was the reason it took them so much time to even figure out what had been happening.
After pattern recognition, they've found that today, the killer will definitely make his move. The city had been in a curfew that started every evening for a week; it had already been quite taxing to the public. But today that will help them find the killer.
In the hands of the Governor was an item he valued greatly, an item they had to borrow due to this case. His daughter Brígh was a student of a powerful Spirit Contractor and she was the one who had borrowed this Legacy Ranked item from her teacher. This item was capable of giving you a bird's eye view of a 100 km radius.
Today they would be using this extraordinary item to find the killer without him finding out about it.
However, while they were keeping an eye on the city, they all noticed something that shocked their perception. At an abandoned plot of land, a mysterious fog started spreading and before they could grasp what was happening, they saw the fog turn into a small building. While they could see the building they were unable to comprehend even the basics of the structure. While their mind said it was a building, they could not understand it as the fog obstructed them from seeing the building. It was quite contradictory as if just looking at the fog transferred a sort of information inside their brain.
“Everyone agrees that this isn't related to the killer, right?” The Captain of the Public Security spoke first.
“Obviously, doing something like that, you'd need a Saint-level Contractor at the very least; on the other hand, someone so powerful would not need to hide after killing anyone, even if they kill the Prime Minister, we'd not be able to do anything. This is something completely different.” The Governor replied.
“Father, I feel like we should at least check it out. After all, if someone like that wanted to hide, they would be able to hide from us quite easily. I think this might be an opportunity.” Brígh added.
“Indeed, I can feel as if they're inviting us into the building.” The Guild master of the Mercenary Guild stated.
“But the problem is that we know nothing about the other party, I would suggest we first send someone to scout for information.” The Guild Master of Information Guild was also added.
“Sir Miritér, while I do understand your habit of gathering information, I would say that such a plan would be idiotic after all, someone so powerful should not be offended in any way, and scouting in their territory can certainly be confirmed to be as probing, it'll definitely offend them.” The Governor immediately retorted.
After a few more small arguments, it was decided that the Guild Master of Mercenary Guild, as well as the Head of House Security, would accompany Brígh as their bodyguard and go check out this place, while everyone else would stay here and try to find the killer.
On the other side of the city, a young man hidden in the shadows looked at his target. For him, everyone who published their depression and tried to earn sympathy was a hypocrite and no less than a criminal who deserves death plenty. His target today was a middle-aged man who had begged his wife to stay with him and even threatened her that if she left him, he would kill himself.
The Young man was using his beast called Shadow Serpent to hide from everyone and slowly came closer to his target. But unbeknownst to him he was currently walking right into a trap. The man he was about to strike was none other than Zarok, the Warrior King. A man known for his extraordinary strength even though he was not a Contractor.
His sharp and critical strike was met with a simple deflection and followed by a kick in his ribs. If not for his Shadow Serpent’s ability to reduce physical damage by a large margin, this single kick could have killed him on the spot. However, the kick instead gave him momentum to sprint into a run.
Zarok, the one acting as bait, followed him; however, even though Zarok was quite fast, the serial killer was a lot harder to spot in the darkness; Zarok had to simply follow his instincts.
Before half an hour had passed, the area was already covered with guards, even the Governor himself had come out and was trying to search him. Now that they had already found out that the Legacy Ranked Artefact would not be able to show them the killer since he could hide in the shadows, they no longer relied on it and had completely covered every corner of the area.
The serial killer still did not give up; he knew that if he got caught, he would be executed after getting tortured. Instead, he chose to hide in an ordinary house; he didn't know who lived there, but since he had entered it while almost invisible, he was sure he could hide in there for some time.
As a chase was taking place on one side of the city, three people were getting themselves ready to face something extraordinary tonight. Brígh was preparing herself for everything; not only had she equipped herself with weapons, but she had dressed herself as a proper lady, too. They had no idea what a Saint was doing here on the planet but anyone who comes from the stars can't be ordinary. They had seen the miracles performed by Emperor Contractors, even they could destroy cities. Of course, understanding that someone who could project an entire structure on the ground and exude such a mysterious aura can not be underestimated in any way.
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Finally, after preparing themselves with everything, they approached the mysterious building. As they came close, they could feel the fog parting and they found themselves in a garden.
The white marble floor, the impeccably painted walls, the grass in the garden, and every delicate design on the structure looked unreal yet completely real. The energy concentration in this place was out of bounds; just by standing there, they could feel the spirit energy rushing inside them. Each of their spirits has already started absorbing the energy around them. Of course, unlike the spirits, they weren't shameless enough to get lost in the bliss of pure energy.
After they entered the shop area, their eyes fell on the display, where many products were displayed. Each of them had a completely different kind of energy attached to them. The first rack had weapons, out of which none could be considered a powerful weapon, but was it even about the power here? These pieces were art, each of them made to perfection; the same could be said about the second and third racks.
After looking around a bit, they found a bell, which seemed to be there to call the store staff. Brígh pressed the bell and after waiting for a couple of minutes, a young man came out of the back room. He seemed to be a friendly person yet the presence coming from him was no less that of a Saint.
"Welcome to the Universal Trading Centre, how may I help you?” The man asked.
So it was indeed a shop, to trade across the universe, what kind of power someone might have. The thought frightened and, at the same time, excited her.
“Do you happen to have any items to help Spirit Beasts?” She asked, hoping to find something for her Four Element Eagle.
“Indeed, we do, would you be kind enough to tell me the range of Rank you want the items to be?”
“Adept Rank would be fine.” She replied. And soon she could see a new rack in the Display shop with Spirit Energy oozing out.
In total, there were 12 items, 3 pills, 3 Beast collars, and 6 Beast Skill Books. Looking at the items she found the prices to be… extremely dumb.
The pills were overpriced by at least 50% and Beast collars were so overpriced that buying them would be idiotic. At the same time, the Beast Skill Books were so cheap that she even thought they might be fake. But she could feel the energy coming from the Books; it was certainly high-grade spirit energy usually found in Skill Books.
Beast Skill Books were nothing more than high-grade Spirit Energy condensed around words, thus when the Beasts absorb this energy, the intent of the skill is also absorbed, which is also the reason that sometimes these books fail, as the intent of the skill books is just that an intent, if the Beasts are not able to understand that intent, it'll simply be wasted.
Looking at the Skill Books, all 6 books had different element skills in them. While she was contemplating whether to buy only the three that her Beast could learn or buy all of them, a voice spoke from behind her.
“I would like to buy all six of the Skill Books.” The Guild Master of the Mercenary Guild spoke with hidden excitement in his voice. In her moment of loss, she had forgotten about the identities of the people behind her, they weren't her usual guards who would not speak without her permission.
Now she hoped that her father had not sent these people as her bodyguards.
“Sir, do you happen to have any Willpower-related items, same rank if you may.” Her other guard, or rather the Head of House Security, spoke.
“Of course, just a moment.” The young man, who no one believed was young, spoke.
And just like that another rack was filled. This time, there were only 4 items, but each above its own league.
In Serninon, Willpower was extremely faint energy, usually only used to strengthen the body and mind but it could never be compared to a Contractor. Just by power shared between Contractor and Spirit Beasts, you could easily surpass most of the Willpower users, which is why no one cultivated Willpower alone, but it was rather used as self-preservation. It is mostly used for situations in which your Spirit Beasts are injured or, worse, have been killed; in these cases, you will no longer receive the buffs that you get from Spirit Beasts, and thus, you might even collapse on the spot.
However, today, all three of the Serninons were surprised by the Willpower exuding from these items. They felt as if Willpower was as strong as Spirit Energy.
Unknown to them, the reason for this was a small misunderstanding caused by Tiers. While for Serninons Adept was 3rd Tier for Sprit Energy/Contractors, which had been translated easily. It could not be said with Willpower. Due to extremely faint Willpower, the highest Tier someone could reach on Serninon was Tier 3. On the other hand, the highest Tier for a Contractor was Tier 8. Thus, using the same logic, the ranks of Willpower had actually been divided into 10 ranks, 8 Reachable and 2 Ascended ranks, the same as Spirit Contractors.
They had close connections with another Spirit Civilization, which sent Tier 9 (Saint) or, in some very rare cases, Tier 10 (Supreme) to their planet.
So for the trio, it was as if they were looking at the true potential of Willpower for the first time.
The Store owner, looking at them, started to introduce the products.
“This is the Bracelet of Singularity, while it will deplete all of your Willpower, it can create a barrier that can range from being able to withstand a Tier 2 attack to not breaking even after several Tier 4 attacks depending on the energy it has absorbed. On the other hand, is its twin Bracelet, the Bracelet of Burden; it can absorb your Willpower over time and store it; once it reaches its maximum captivity, it'll turn red; it's advised to use it within a month after it turns red. When used, it can unleash an attack at Tier 4.”
After hearing the explanation, they were all stunned; they had only seen this kind of capability in Spirit Weapons but never in anything related to Willpower. Of course, the Head of House Security immediately bought all four items. At this point, both the Guild Master and Head of House Security had completely depleted their funds. On the other hand, Brígh did not want to buy the remaining items, and asking for more items was embarrassing for her since she hadn't bought anything after asking for new items, but her guards had actually bought it all.
Thus she moved to a different topic.
“May I know what the Request Room is for?” She asked.
“Oh, my apologies, I should have introduced you to all the features of our Trading Centre. The Request Room is a room where you can post or accept requests; in this case, the price is paid by the person posting the request directly to the person completing the request, and we only take a small share. In exchange, we offer all kinds of services such as Transportation, Translation as well as Energy Reserves.” The Shopkeeper explained.
In the request room, they only found a single request; it was an escort mission, and the reward was an artefact. After reading the description, Brígh knew she had to do this mission; after all, her Master was a collector of unusual artifacts; if she could gift him this Artefact that came from a completely different place and had such a rich history, he would surely be pleased.